Abijah (Hebrew: אֲבִיָּה Aviyyah) is a Biblical Hebrew[1] unisex name[2] which means "my Father is Yah".[1] The Hebrew form Aviyahu also occurs in the Bible.[3]
The variant used in the Russian language is "А́вия" (Aviya),[1] with "А́бия"[1] or "Аби́я" (Abiya),[2] being older forms.[1] Included into various, often handwritten, church calendars throughout the 17th–19th centuries, it was omitted from the official Synodal Menologium at the end of the 19th century.[17] In 1924–1930, the name (as "Ави́я", a form of "Abiya"[2]) was included into various Soviet calendars,[17] which included the new and often artificially created names promoting the new Soviet realities and encouraging the break with the tradition of using the names in the Synodal Menologia.[18] In Russian it is only used as a female name.[1][2] Diminutives of this name include "А́ва" (Ava) and "Ви́я" (Viya).[1]